A glance into the Daily’s editorial board meeting process:

About six or seven of us meet twice weekly, typically equipped with several ideas for editorials. These ideas are usually inspired by some news story — so most times, we have copies of the stories to share with one another. We then discuss the topic and deem whether or not we have a strong enough opinion and whether our gripe/praise is worthwhile enough to publish.

In our last meeting, we noticed a somewhat ironic sequence of headlines from which one member had brought as potential editorial ideas: “Job Forecast for College Seniors: Grimmer than ever,” “Study: Doodling Helps You Pay Attention,” and lastly, “Giving the Finger: This Hurts Me More Than You.”

See any correlation? A bit of irony perhaps?

The first headline was from a story we’ve been hearing and living for the past several months. Published in Time, the article stated 44 percent of companies surveyed in a study plan to hire fewer graduates, and 22 percent are putting a hold on hiring this spring. To anybody that’s been to the spring career fairs, this is no surprising news.

On to the next two headlines, both published in Time.

One lighthearted article was about a study claiming that people who doodle actually retain more information than people who do not doodle. The other, about a study determining the “emotional impact” of using the middle finger. “Making the middle finger gesture brings hostile thoughts to mind,” psychologist Jesse Chandler concluded from the study.

We understand. Studies for these sorts of things have all sorts of deep-seated meanings and significance. We’re not sure what they are, but we have faith they’re being applied to a higher cause. Regardless, we have to admit articles such as these are, while humorously ironic, a little painful to read after reading articles about our own bleak job outlook — after attending a near-empty career fair, after being told by the fifth employer that although you’re a great candidate, they just don’t have the resources to hire right now.

While the economy is hitting rock bottom, people are losing jobs right and left, and students are scrambling to find companies that are still hiring, there are people spending time, money and resources to determine something as frivolous as the attention span of a doodler and the emotions of somebody who flips the bird.

So, more than a heated opinion on the matter, this is more of an observation of a societal paradox — a bit of food for thought. While so many in our country are struggling, others are clearly not being hit so hard. And if things are relative, while we see ourselves as in the pits, other societies are on the brink of mass starvation and tied up in internal warfare.

Maybe we don’t have it so bad after all.